“I do not follow trends”

the use and non-use fashion trend reports by designers in Brazil and Germany

Abstract

In the fashion system, fashion trends organize to a greater or lesser extent the launch calendar for collections that renew the market each year. The companies responsible for editing fashion trends in reports are called bureaux de style. This work aims to understand how fashion designers make use of these reports. Thus, an interpretative investigation was conducted, following the methodology of Grounded Theory. The data were collected through interviews with fashion designers in Brazil and Germany and analyzed following the steps of codification and in the light of Critical Realism (BHASKAR, 2008) and the Theory of Structuring (GIDDENS, 1991). As the focus defined for the research was that of a fashion system, I adopted the endogenous justification for the existence of trends (ERNER, 2012; GODART, 2005). The work evidenced a speech that, at first glance, denies the use of fashion trend reports. However, almost all respondents have (paid for) access to them. Therefore, I developed a scheme that denotes different levels of usage of trend reports from bureaux de style, expanding the concept its usage.